


Bringing Sexy Back

by newtypeshadow



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Winter Soldier (Comics)
Genre: Ass Appreciation, Canon Divergence - Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Crushes, Dancing, Everybody else knows and is sick of their shit, Kidnapped Tony Stark, Kidnapping, M/M, Mutual Pining, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Oblivious Bucky Barnes, Oblivious Tony Stark, Pining, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Requited Unrequited Love, Rescue Missions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 05:12:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18542956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/newtypeshadow/pseuds/newtypeshadow
Summary: Tony and Steve get kidnapped at a gala, and Bucky and the Avengers suit up and get them back.Steve and Tony have obviously been drugged. Why else would Tony be complimenting Bucky’s ass? That’s not normal for him, right? …Right?





	Bringing Sexy Back

**Author's Note:**

> This started because in _Winter Soldier #3: The Longest Winter_ , Bucky’s gear auto-loops cameras for a few seconds so he can speed-stealth his way past them.
> 
> See end notes for non-consensual drug use trigger warning.

Bucky isn’t an Avenger. If it had been up to him, he’d never have joined the army and found out how good he is at killing people—and Hydra wouldn’t have found out either. Bucky’s only ever _wanted_ to fight to watch Steve’s back and protect people he cares about.

Tonight he’s got both reasons to suit up and start bashing heads—and kneecaps—with the Avengers.

Not only was Steve kidnapped, Tony was too—Tony with the gorgeous eyes and the brain that goes at lightspeed on a slow day, and who knows what Bucky did to the Starks but lets him live in his _home_ , Avengers Tower, anyway. Tony, who wasn’t in his Iron Man armor when he and Steve traded themselves for the roomful of snotty rich hostages at that charity gala the rest of them didn’t attend earlier that evening.

Bucky doesn’t want to kill anyone, but he’s also pissed off and worried, and refuses to sacrifice speed and the advantage of stealth to protect a group of neo-Nazi shitheads who kidnapped his friends and don’t know when to quit. One punch K.O.’s are as much time as he’s willing to waste on any of them.

Bruce keeps the quinjet ready for liftoff and the Hulk on standby. The rest of them go in fast and brutal, a three-pronged attack. Hawkeye takes out the sentries and maintains their control of the outside of the facility. Black Widow mows her way through guards to the building’s security and control room. The Winter Soldier does the same down each progressive stairwell, stealth gear looping all cameras in range for the precious few seconds it takes for him to pass undetected.

That little gem is one of Tony’s.

Everything Tony designs feels like The Future to Bucky. He walks into Tony’s lab and feels like a kid in a candy store. Tony’s so fucking smart, and Bucky’s so fucking floored by him—not that Tony knows it. He still seems skittish around Bucky, to Bucky’s displeasure and Steve and Nat’s confounding amusement, but Tony vacating a room within ten minutes of Bucky’s entry means Bucky doesn’t have enough time to embarrass himself too much by getting caught mooning. Unfortunately, avoidance is what you get for moving into the house of a man whose parents you murdered—even if he says he’s forgiven you since you’d been brainwashed at the time, and one of said parents was your friend.

“Grounds are clear,” Hawkeye says over the comms.

“I’m in their systems,” Widow says a moment later with a hard grunt and what sounds like a thud in the background.

A few minutes later, Bucky is in the first of the two hallways of holding cells he memorized from the blueprints. The doors are thick reinforced steel. Small viewing windows and short, wide food slots line the tops and bottoms of each door. All are closed. Bucky starts looking through each; he can’t hear any noise from the cells. “I’m here,” Bucky says, “Widow, which cell?”

“13-B. You’d normally need a keycard to get in, but—”

Bucky hears a clang down the hall as he sprints.

“—I now control every lock, door, and security measure in this building. Get them out—I’ll clear your way to the exit.”

Bucky hears Tony before he sees him. He’s telling Steve some crazy story about a time he wound up modeling lingerie and stiletto heels during New York Fashion Week, but his voice is hoarse and Steve isn’t laughing like he would be if he were okay.

Bucky swings the door open.

Steve and Tony are in the same cell, wearing the gala tuxedos they’d been nabbed in when they exchanged themselves for all those ungrateful assholes.

Tony’s got an ankle manacled to a short chain on the wall, his hands are cuffed behind his back, he’s missing his shoes, and he looks like he’s running on fumes, but at least he’s mobile and lucid. Steve isn’t either of those things. He’s strapped to a table out of Tony’s reach with most of his sleeve cut open and an IV dripping something into his bared arm. He doesn’t seem to notice Bucky even when he opens the door and Tony says, “Took you long enough,” without bothering to look up.

“It’s been _four_ _hours_ ,” Bucky says, “and it took three of ‘em to find you.”

Tony’s head shoots up then, eyes wide, and Bucky feels bad for thinking he still looks gorgeous even worn down as he is. “Since when are _you_ cleared for missions?” Tony asks.

“I’m not,” Bucky says, pulling out Steve’s IV and snapping off his restraints. Hopefully the serum will get him back on his feet pretty soon—Bucky wants both hands free to fight and he’ll only have one if he’s carrying Steve. He turns to Tony and snaps the chain linking his handcuffs; the cuffs are on so tight he’s worried he’ll hurt Tony if he tries to wrench them open. While Tony massages his wrists, Bucky kneels and carefully pulls apart the manacle around his ankle.

Tony whistles as he looks at the twisted metal. “Remind me to never piss you off,” he says. He rolls his shoulder with a wince.

“I only kill people I like when I’m brainwashed,” Bucky says, realizing a moment too late that Tony is the worst person in the world to make that joke to.

To his surprise, Tony huffs out a laugh. “Well, that makes one of us.” His tone is self-deprecating, his eyes pained and far away.

Bucky hates that expression on Tony’s face, and suspects Tony wouldn’t be so candid were he not exhausted, so he whistles and echoes, “Remind me to never piss _you_ off,” to lighten the mood.

Tony snorts at him.

Bucky grins proudly, and pulls a comm and two of Tony’s gauntlet watches out of a pocket and hands them over. As Tony puts them on and drags the gauntlets over his hands with visible relief, Bucky assesses Steve: his eyes are focusing again, but aside from a few twitches he still isn’t moving. “The fuck did they give you,” Bucky mutters, checking him for injuries before hauling Steve over his right shoulder and grabbing a gun in his metal hand. “Got ‘em,” he says into the comms. “We’re heading your way, Hawkeye. Widow, don’t let anyone sneak up on us.” To Tony he says, “You good to watch our backs?”

To Bucky’s surprise, Tony looks him up and down and leers. “Oh, I am _always_ up for watching your back, Buckaroo." He grins wolfishly and motions Bucky forward. “After you. Please.”

Bucky pauses. Tony doesn’t _actually_ … “Hawkeye, can we do a tox screen for Cap and Iron Man on the jet?”

Tony rolls his eyes with his whole body and shoos Bucky toward the hallway. “I’m tired, sexyback, not drugged.”

“And yet you just complimented my ass.”

“Guys, back me up here,” Tony says.

Bucky startles when Steve groans and pats his butt, seemingly in response.

“No, that’s normal,” Hawkeye is saying, amusement coloring his tone.

“It really is,” Bruce agrees.

“He literally never shuts up about your _perfect ass_ ,” Widow grumbles. “He’s worse than _you_.”

“Oh.” Bucky’s glad he’s in front so Tony won’t notice he’s blushing. Tony really does have a perfect ass—a perfect _everything_ —and Bucky may have said so to Steve and Nat more than once. He never imagined Tony would say the same about him. No wonder they think Bucky’s crush is funny. He clears his throat and rallies. “Well, keep us safe and I’ll give you front row seats whenever you want.”

“Does this show include audience participation?” Tony asks. “Because if it doesn’t, I’d like to file a complaint.”

Bucky snorts. “Take me to dinner first and I’ll give you an all-access pass.” He checks the hallway—it’s clear. He nods at Tony and starts leading the way to the exit.

Tony makes a considering sound. “I should probably crash when we get back so I don’t get yelled at all morning, but I don’t want to wait until dinner. Can we do brunch?”

“That works,” Bucky says, feigning nonchalance. The truth is he’s never been this giddy while on high alert before—but then, Tony Stark just asked him out. Bucky’s still with it enough to shoot the guard that peeks down the stairwell a half second later, so he’s not too upset at his own distraction.

How can he be? He has a date with Tony in less than fifteen hours. They _cannot_ get out of this facility fast enough.

Tony’s not too exhausted to repulsor two guards in the chest on their way out, and a third in the face and again in the junk—that one seemed personal, _damn_. Thankfully, Bucky doesn’t have to shoot anyone after the stairwell, since he needs to hold progressively tighter to Steve, who’s wiggling and insisting he can walk in a well-nigh unintelligible slur. Black Widow appears in front of them three turns from the exit and leads the rest of the way to the quinjet.

Bruce has them in the air before the ramp has finished closing, and Tony immediately has JARVIS play “SexyBack” through the jet’s speakers.

Bucky laughs. Steve smiles dopily and bobs his head to the beat from where Bruce has strapped him in to check him over, having ceded the cockpit to Clint. Tony convinces Natasha and Bucky to dance with him, and launches an ass-centric dance off to a litany of ass-centric songs Bucky’s also never heard of. When one called “Bootylicious” ends, Nat spins Tony into Bucky’s arms and hunkers down in the co-pilot’s seat next to Clint.

Tony doesn’t move away. He lets Bucky spin him instead, and teaches him how to pop with far more touching than is probably necessary. They keep dancing—a little manic with fatigue and relief—all the way back to the tower.

#

When Tony walks into the common room late the next morning and sees Bucky sitting on the couch, he seems just as nervous as always, and once again makes an excuse—this time it’s a brunch reservation—to leave the room within ten minutes.

This time, he takes Bucky with him.

**Author's Note:**

> Trigger Warning—Non-Consensual Drug Use: The kidnappers have heavily sedated Steve via IV, and he’s barely conscious when Bucky finds him.
> 
> “SexyBack” is by Justin Timberlake ft. Timbaland. “Bootylicious” is by Destiny’s Child.
> 
> Thanks for reading—I hope you enjoyed it! If you did, please let me know via kudos/comments! ^_^


End file.
